Claude Dansey

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Claude Edward Marjoribanks Dansey,^[1] KCMG (10 September 1876 – 11 June 1947), also known as Colonel Z, Haywood, Uncle Claude, and codenamed Z, was the assistant chief of the Secret Intelligence Service known as ACSS, of the British intelligence agency commonly known as MI6, and a member of the London Controlling Section. He began his career in intelligence in 1900, and remained active until his death.^[2]

Claude Dansey
Dansey in 1905
Born	(1876-09-10)10 September 1876 South Kensington
Died	11 June 1947(1947-06-11) (aged 70) Bath, Somerset
Nationality	British
Other names	Uncle Claude
Espionage activity
Allegiance	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Codename	Z
Codename	Haywood
Codename	Colonel Z
Codename	Uncle Claude

Early life

Dansey was born in 1876 at 14 Cromwell Place, Kensington, the second of nine children and eldest son of Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Edward Mashiter Dansey, an officer in the 1st Life Guards, and his wife, the Hon. Eleanor Dansey, daughter of Robert Gifford, 2nd Baron Gifford.^[3] He attended Wellington College until 1891, and then a private school in Bruges.^[3] At the age of 17 he became sexually involved with Robert Baldwin Ross, and Lord Alfred Douglas, narrowly avoiding exposure and imprisonment.^[4]

Later life

In 1895 he joined the Matabeleland Regiment of the British South African Police. On 13 June 1898 he joined the militia as second lieutenant in the 5th and 6th Battalions, Lancashire Fusiliers,^[5] being promoted to lieutenant on 9 November.^[6] On 16 August 1899 he was seconded for service with the British North Borneo Company.^[7] He transferred to the regular army when he was appointed a second lieutenant of the 2nd battalion on 24 February 1900,^[8] followed by promotion to lieutenant on 15 August 1900.^[9] On 1 March 1902 he was again seconded,^[10] as a Staff Lieutenant for Intelligence in South Africa,^[11] then on 24 June he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Brigadier-General commanding the Harrismith District, Charles James Blomfield.^[12] He was transferred from a supernumerary lieutenancy onto the establishment of his regiment on 17 September 1902.^[13] On 4 November 1904 he was seconded for "special extra-regimental employment"^[14] as a Political Advisor in the British Somaliland Protectorate^{[citation needed]} and on 24 October 1906 he resigned his commission.^[15] On 10 April 1907 he was promoted to captain on the Reserve of Officers.^[16]

He was recruited by MI5 and put in charge of "port intelligence" and the surveillance of civilian passengers during World War I. He was "inadvertently" responsible for allowing Leon Trotsky to return to Russia in 1917.^[17] He helped set up the first American military intelligence service in 1917.

After the war he went into business but in 1929 he rejoined the intelligence services in Rome, with his cover being a passport control officer. When the chief of MI6 (then Hugh Sinclair) realized that the Germans had penetrated several MI6 stations, Dansey was tasked with setting up a parallel network of agents in the affected areas. He left Rome in 1936, with the rumour following him that he had been sacked for embezzlement and he worked for an import-export office in Bush House in The Strand. He used the codename Z and avoided the use of wireless.

In September 1939 this "Z network" was folded into the MI6 networks and Dansey was sent to Bern. He returned to London to became deputy to Stewart Menzies, chief of MI6 (SIS), after the death of Hugh Sinclair^[18] in November 1939 where he was in charge of "active espionage".

He retired in 1945, to Bathampton Manor, near Bath.^[19]

Personal life

Dansey married Mrs Pauline Monroe Ulman (maiden surname Cory) in 1915 and they were later divorced. He married Mrs Frances Gurney Rylander (Maiden surname Wilson) in 1945. There were no children. Dansey died on 11 June 1947 in Bath, Somerset.^{[citation needed]}